For 10 years, Real Madrid forward Karim Benzema has been dealing with the consequences of stupidity. First, the attacker was caught with an underage prostitute during a police raid. Then he got involved in a stupid blackmail scandal with Mathieu Valbuena and did not play for the national team for six years. Now Karim has been returned to participate in Euro 2020, but the trial is still going on. And in between all this, there was an affair with Rihanna.
It’s hard to believe that the fashion-forward and fop Karim Benzema actually came from a poor family in a deprived area. Koko, as he was known in his childhood, is the sixth child of nine in a family of Algerian refugees. Karim’s parents settled in the commune of Bron – one of the most criminal points on the outskirts of Lyon. Naturally, from an early age,so often got into trouble because of criminal friends that the first coach of the football player is still surprised that he got out of the people.
Coco’s childhood best friend was Karim Zenati, who is five years older. A friend defended the plump Algerian on the streets and at school, and Koko always tried to repay him.
In 2003, Zenati committed a series of robberies and went to prison three years later. “We are born in violence. Violence in all neighborhoods, in the school. We do not realize when we attack someone that we are doing something bad, ” Zenati defended himself after the trial in 2006. He was released on parole and in 2009 was caught smuggling 200 kg of marijuana from Spain. The cops gave chase to Karim in a white Audi TT with a punctured tire. And just a couple of days before the fast and furious for Lyon, Zenati watched the match of “weavers” with “Marseille”in the company of Benzema from the VIP box. Koko often visited a friend in prison, and after his release even found him a job.
The second close friend of Benzema is his agent Jaziri, the third Karim in their company. And it would be funny, if not for the violent nature of the impresario. One day, Djiziri did not like what a L’Equipe journalist wrote about Benzema, and Karim-3 came in the company of Karim-2 to defend the honor of Karim-1. The journalist narrowly escaped a bruising. But Jaziri is not so inadequate: he also beat out for Coco a juicy contract with Real Madrid for 10 million euros a year.
“Karim’s environment is quite eerie. Most people are only interested in money, they think that everything is for sale and everything is bought, ” wrote El Monde about the football player’s friends. As a result, Benzema, like a real yard guy, honors his childhood friends and pays tribute to them. And this friendship all the 2010s involved Karim Benzema in disgusting scandals that broke his career in the French national team and cost him the world title.
In April 2010, the Paris police conducted a raid to combat illegal prostitution. In France, the sex trade is legalized, but only after the age of majority. During the operation, the cops detained 18 girls at the Zaman Cafe club in the center of Paris. One of them, Zahia Dehar, told police that she served Karim Benzema and Franck Ribery when she was not yet 18.
Karim Benzema first met her in 2008. A year later, Benzema recommended Zachia to Franca. The hooker was called to Munich for the midfielder’s birthday. After the holiday, Ribery, who is married and has two children, became a regular customer of Dehar. The girl told Frank that she was 20 years old.
When the story came to light (Zahia gave a detailed interview to a local tabloid), both players were called in for questioning by the police and charged with inciting prostitution and having sex with a minor. The scandal cost Benzema a trip to the 2010 World Cup, and Ribery had a disastrous tournament in South Africa, as did the entire French national team.
The trial dragged on for four years. Only in 2014, the Paris court acquitted the players, because there was not enough evidence that Frank and Karim knew the real age of Zahia.
It turned out that in 2008, when Karim Benzema was still playing for Lyon, friends dragged him to a Paris nightclub, where the striker met the girl. Zahia lied that she was 18, and Kareem not only used her services, but also paid for Dehar tickets to European cities where he was at the moment of whim. One of the friends who dragged the striker to that club is his agent Jaziri.
At the next World Cup, Karim Benzema still got-this was his last show in the national team jersey. Karim scored three goals and gave one assist. But in the quarterfinals, France lost to the Germans (0: 1). Benzema caught a lot of words of support. But the most unexpected message was from Rihanna.
“Karim Benzema, I feel your pain,” the singer wrote. It turned out that Ri supported the French national team at the World Cup. “There is no victory without pain,” Karim told her. After that, they continued to communicate on the Internet, and in the summer of 2015, the paparazzi leaked photos of the football player and the singer vacationing together in the United States. They arrived at the clubs in different cars, and in the morning they left through the back doors together. They hid in inconspicuous eateries and went to dinner for four hours.
It could be the most beautiful novel for an immigrant from the impoverished quarter of Lyon. But Karim Benzema ruined it all by himself. At that time, Rihanna was still going through a breakup with Chris Brown, who beat the singer, and did not want to rush things. And Benzema – this is a real striker-acted with his usual pressure. As a result, Ri dropped the Real Madrid player. Just a few weeks later, Karim was caught up in the biggest scandal of his life, which ruined his career. And without the help of friends again did not do.
In June 2015, the star of “Dynamo” Valbuena called a stranger who introduced himself as Wass. The man reported that he had a sex video with Mathieu. Wass suggested that Valbuena connect him with some representative, so that they could agree on the transfer of the recording for 150 thousand euros. Dynamo agreed, and the next day Wass received a call from a man from Mathieu named Lucas.
Lucas found out that the video was not made by Wass himself: he was offered blackmail by Mustafa Zaoui and Alex Ango-employees of the training center of Marseille, for which Valbuena played. The men wanted to close the debts with the player’s money. But Mathieu might have recognized them, which is why Wass showed up in the case.
The blackmailers did not take into account one thing: Lucas was the police commissioner, who, under the guise of a representative of Valbuena, took up the promotion of the case. Negotiations on the transfer of money were deliberately delayed, and the gangsters involved a new intermediary in blackmail – a childhood friend of Benzema Karim Zenati. All the blackmailers were immediately put on the wire.
On November 2, 2015, Zenati arranged a meeting between Zaoui and Benzema to discuss the details of the blackmail. Before that, Benzema had already spoken to Valbuena. According to the ex-Dynamo player, Karim begged him to pay the extortionists. And when he refused, Benzema called Zenati and swore at Mathieu for his stubborn character. The audio recording of the conversation was found by the journalists of the radio station Europe 1, which published it in full in the evening news. For the first time, the world learned what had been going on in Valbuena’s personal life for six months. Two days later, Benzema and the blackmailer clowns were arrested.
As a result, Koko spent the night at the police station. A little later, Karim and Mathieu were suspended from the French national team, and 70% of L’Equipe readers supported the decision – the toxic atmosphere in the national team at the 2010 World Cup has not yet been forgotten. But Valbuena did not shine in the national team, and Benz was the team’s top scorer. Because of the scandal, the striker missed the next World Cup and Euro and flew past the world title.
In the spring of 2021, it became known that the decisive trial in the Benzema case will be held in October. If his guilt is confirmed, Karim faces a term of up to five years and a fine of 75 thousand euros.
Benzema did not need money, he had no problems with Valbuena. But he had to help his rogue friends with their idiotic scheme. As a result, the footballer did not help out his friends, and he deprived himself of the most important title, the remnants of his reputation and, if the court decides so, several years of freedom. Benzema was returned to the national team before Euro 2020. This may be the last international tournament for the 33-year-old striker.